Packet data latency is a performance metric that vendors, operators, and end-users regularly measure (e.g., via speed test applications). Latency measurements may be performed in all phases of a radio access network system lifetime, for example, when verifying a new software release or system component, when deploying a system, and/or when the system is in commercial operation.
Improved latency relative to previous generations of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Technologies (RATs) was a performance metric that guided the design of Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is also now recognized by end-users to be a system that provides faster access to the Internet and lower data latencies than previous generations of mobile radio technologies.
In current LTE standards, a downlink DL subframe may have a 1 millisecond (ms) duration with 14 symbols. Notwithstanding such systems, further improvement in data latency may still be desired.